Prostheses can be useful to enhance the life experience of users, such as for those who lose or are born without a portion of a limb. As the operability of such prostheses improves, so does the experience of the user. Accordingly, prostheses have continued to develop over the years to provide enhanced capabilities.
As features are added to prostheses, their complexity also tends to increase. For instance, where mechanical control and actuation are implemented, related componentry can tend to be bulky and require significant power. Further, prostheses can be challenging to implement under varied conditions of movement, which may range from walking to running. For instance, prostheses that are configured specifically for walking may be difficult or impossible to run with, and prostheses that are configured specifically for running may be cumbersome or awkward for walking.
Other issues with prostheses relate to the challenges that users face in using them. For instance, walking, running, and gaits in-between walking and running can involve very different forces, balance, mechanics and other characteristics. The natural foot-ankle behaves differently for tasks such as walking, running, and standing balance. In particular, running exhibits properties that are significantly different than walking.
These and other matters have presented challenges to the use of prostheses, for a variety of applications.